Recently I received an email from a woman who feels boxed into a corner in life. She cannot get work and has no idea how she will pay for tomorrow. I wished Mandy’s email was unique but I’m afraid I hear the same story from people all over the country every day. This is what she wrote.

I have two areas. The first one is in my retirement area the second in daily spending & savings plan.

To help you better help me. I was married for 26 years, now divorced. My husband did all the retirement planning etc. So now I have, 1/2 of what he planned. If I don’t speak spanish and he did-frankly I am unsure of what I do have. So after my divorce in 2004, I actually received the 401k etc. in 2007 since then I have Charles Swabb handling some of it, and I have a 401k from a company he used to work for, I have one with a company I know longer work for. So what do I do with it, how can I understand it . Then how do I understand what I do have so I have a baseline to know what I need to achieve for the future.

I am out of work and applying for jobs. I moved from out of state into my parents house, in a very rural community. My mother just passed away and father is in a nursing home. So I have no expenses except for the telephone/internet, car expenses, personal care, food. If I need to leave here to gain employment, I won’t have any savings to help me live and pay rent. The jobs would be at least 60 miles to 120 mile away one way. So starting with nothing how do I get something built up, and where to put it as I
build. I will be receiving real-estate, and money from my parents estate. I would like to know how to handle a good chunk of money in a short period of time, to be put to use towards my best interest. So I feel I need to work on both of these areas.

Thank you for your time and efforts. I am truly grateful.

Sandra,
The number one thing you need to do is figure out what you have and what you have access to. How close are you to being able to receive social security?

Once you have figured out what financial assets you have- figure out your talent assets.
What can you do? How can those skills be put to use to make money. There are so many home based ways to make money today that I suggest you look into that as an option as soon as possible.
You may also qualify for food assistance from both the government and your community food bank.
Finally – see what you can do now for the house and other assets your parents plan to leave you- to make the estate transfer go smoothly. If you do not have internet at your house – get to a library once a week to tackle these questions. I want to see you in charge of your next chapter. That will require some leg work but ultimately it will be rewarding.
I will leave you with this quote that motivates me when I think the challenge ahead is tough. “We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.” -Jim Rohn

Work hard to get the answers to these questions and appoint yourself the CEO of your life. The best is yet to come.
Mary to subscribe to Mary’s feed click here feed://maryandmoney.com/feed/

About Mary

Mary Caraccioli, MLA, MBA is the Money Confidante. An Emmy™ Award winning financial journalist, she has worked at CNBC, FOX, Comcast and ABC's LiveWell TV where she has created numerous award winning programs. Mary also helped to create the Lou Dobbs syndicated radio report. She was an early adaptor of digital media and creator of well respected money websites.

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